Incumbent U.S. Rep. Cory Gardner, R-Yuma, won re-election to Colorado's 4th Congressional District on Tuesday, holding off a challenge by Longmont Democrat Brandon Shaffer.

Gardner claimed victory shortly before 9 p.m., saying in a statement that “I am honored to have been elected to represent the people of the 4th Congressional District for a second term.

“I look forward to fighting for policies that put our country back on sound financial footing,” Gardner said. “Now we have a lot of work to do to bring our country together and address the challenges ahead.”

Shaffer said in a Tuesday night interview that while he hadn't talked to Gardner personally at that point, “I left him a message and congratulated him and wished him well.

U.S. Rep. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., speaks after retaining his seat in Colorado's 4th Congressional District during a Republican Party election night gathering in the club level of Sports Authority Field at Mile High in Denver on Tuesday.
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David Zalubowski
)

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According to a running unofficial vote count from the Colorado Secretary of State's Office as of about 11 p.m. Tuesday, of the initial 245,108 votes counted in the 22-county congressional district at that point, Gardner had gotten about 59 percent, and Shaffer, 36 percent.

“I didn't get enough votes. That's the bottom line,” Shaffer said, although he added that “we ran a good campaign. I'm proud of the showing we had.”

The 4th Congressional District includes the Longmont corner of northeast Boulder County and all of Weld County.

A separate 10:30 p.m. report from the Boulder County Clerk and Recorder's Office showed that Shaffer had gotten 57 percent of the 27,507 votes counted at that point from the Longmont portion of the 4th Congressional District, while Gardner had collected about 39 percent of those Boulder County votes.

Shaffer has represented an eastern Boulder County state Senate District in the Colorado Legislature the past three years, including three as the Senate's president. Gardner is a former Colorado House member.

Gardner said in an interview that “we ran on our record. We didn't run away from our record” and his campaign theme of “getting government out of the way and letting America work.”

“We worked hard to make sure we were listening to the people of the district,” said Gardner, who said he'll now take constituents' concerns and ideas back to Washington “to answer the challenges that face this country.”

Shaffer, in a statement issued later Tuesday night, said: “I got into this race because I believe that we need to put our partisan differences asides to serve the people of this country. We need to stop basing our vote on the letter behind the candidates' names. We're all in this together, and we need to get back to looking out for each other.”

Said Shaffer: “Serving Colorado in the State Senate and running for Congress has been an immense honor. I'm so proud of what we've accomplished, and I couldn't have done anything alone. Every single thing we got done in the last 8 years was a team effort, and that's what we don't see in Washington, D.C. I hope we see some better work out of Congress in the next few years. We need and deserve it.“[

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